Worship God in Spirit and Truth

8/12/2019 Worship God in Spirit and Truth

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Worship God In Spirit and Truth

Say,

Thanks for sending me Father Michael's beautiful sermon for the Third Sunday of Lent on 'We arethirsty but the well is deep':

http://www.michaelckw.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/we-are-thirsty-but-well-is-deep.html

To be honest with you, when I read the entire passage of the Gospel reading, which was from John4:1-42, a very long passage indeed, I did not form the same 'picture' as Father Michael. There isof course nothing wrong with that. Gospel readings are like abstract art, from a spiritual point ofview, and therefore, the 'picture' is in the eyes of the beholder.

However, going on what Father Michael has taken as the relevant metaphors in the gospelpassage, the words 'thirst' and 'well', I fully concur with his conclusion -

"Therefore, the well becomes a most suitable symbol of the human soul. But the good news is that

the well also symbolises the unfathomable depths of Gods love. And so buried deep within us is

this spiritual aquifer it is the place of deep communion between Gods spirit and ours."Just as a matter of interest, at the point where he made reference to Jacob - "If we would run acontest for the most passionate and thirsty individual of the Old Testament, Jacob will make the topthree. Who else cheats his brother and father for destiny, works fourteen years for the woman heloves, wins a wrestle match with the Angel of the Lord and procreates the nation that delivers the

Messiah? Only one guy can brag about thatJacob." - I thought to myself that had he continuedon and made reference to Jacob's dream in Bethel (Genesis 28:12 - 'And he dreamed that therewas a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were

ascending and descending on it.'), he would have transcended from the worldly contribution ofJacob, to the spiritual Understanding Jacob's Ladder and the Parable of the Sower (about reapingwhat you sow) is the key to unlocking the secrets to the spiritual knowledge required to unravel theparables of Jesus.

Say, this gospel reading about Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's Well is veryprofound. You start off with a 2-D view, and then slowly raise it to 3-D, and then 4-D and it starts toblow your mind! The number and myriad of permutations and perspectives, the rich interwoventapestry between the worldly and the spiritual, and you say OMG, how great is God's eternity! Forthat reason I am reciting the gospel passage in full below, so that we can read through together,you and me.

Gospel, John 4:5-42 - 5 On the way he came to the Samaritan town called Sychar near the landthat Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there and Jesus, tired by the journey, satdown by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water,Jesus said to her, "Give me something to drink."8 His disciples had gone into the town to buyfood. 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, 'You are a Jew. How is it that you ask me, a Samaritan,for something to drink?'-- Jews, of course, do not associate with Samaritans. 10 Jesus replied toher: "If you only knew what God is offering and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me somethingto drink,' you would have been the one to ask, and he would have given you living water."11 'Youhave no bucket, sir,'she answered, 'and the well is deep: how do you get this living water?12 Areyou a greater man than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself with hissons and his cattle?'13 Jesus replied: "Whoever drinks this water will be thirsty again; 14 but noone who drinks the water that I shall give will ever be thirsty again: the water that I shall give willbecome a spring of water within, welling up for eternal life."15 'Sir,'said the woman, 'give mesome of that water, so that I may never be thirsty or come here again to draw water.'16 "Go andcall your husband,"said Jesus to her, "and come back here."17 The woman answered, 'I have no
http://www.michaelckw.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/we-are-thirsty-but-well-is-deep.htmlhttp://www.michaelckw.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/we-are-thirsty-but-well-is-deep.html


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husband.'Jesus said to her, "You are right to say, 'I have no husband'; 18 for although you havehad five, the one you now have is not your husband. You spoke the truth there."19 'I see you are aprophet, sir,'said the woman. 20 'Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, though you say thatJerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.'21 Jesus said: "Believe me, woman, the houris coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 Youworship what you do not know; we worship what we do know; for salvation comes from the Jews.23 But the hour is coming -- indeed is already here -- when true worshippers will worship the

Father in spirit and truth: that is the kind of worshipper the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and thosewho worship must worship in spirit and truth."25 The woman said to him, 'I know that Messiah --that is, Christ -- is coming; and when he comes he will explain everything.'26 Jesus said, "That iswho I am, I who speak to you."27 At this point his disciples returned and were surprised to findhim speaking to a woman, though none of them asked, 'What do you want from her?' or, 'What areyou talking to her about?' 28 The woman put down her water jar and hurried back to the town to tellthe people, 29 'Come and see a man who has told me everything I have done; could this be theChrist?'30 This brought people out of the town and they made their way towards him. 31Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, 'Rabbi, do have something to eat'; 32 but he said, "Ihave food to eat that you do not know about"33 So the disciples said to one another, 'Hassomeone brought him food?'34 But Jesus said: "My food is to do the will of the one who sent me,and to complete his work. 35 Do you not have a saying: Four months and then the harvest? Well, Itell you, look around you, look at the fields; already they are white, ready for harvest! 36 Alreadythe reaper is being paid his wages, already he is bringing in the grain for eternal life, so that sowerand reaper can rejoice together. 37 For here the proverb holds true: one sows, another reaps; 38 Isent you to reap a harvest you have not laboured for. Others have laboured for it; and you havecome into the rewards of their labour."39 Many Samaritans of that town believed in him on thestrength of the woman's words of testimony, 'He told me everything I have done.'40 So, when theSamaritans came up to him, they begged him to stay with them. He stayed for two days, and 41many more came to believe on the strength of the words he spoke to them; 42 and they said to thewoman, 'Now we believe no longer because of what you told us; we have heard him ourselves andwe know that he is indeed the Saviour of the world.'

Take careful note how strange it is that when Jesus needed to make a major or universal point hewould choose a non-Jew. Just like the way he chose the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37) toillustrate how you have to love your neighbour (whoever he might be) as yourself (2nd of the TwinCommandments - see Mark12:31). This is now ingrained in the English Common Law as theGood Neighbour Principle. There is a secret motive to getting a Jew to think like a GoodSamaritan, or if you like for a Christian to think like a Good Muslim! It has all to do with 'letting go'of any 'marks' or 'labelling', any prejudgement, any self-righteousness and any self-ego. Unlessone has total humility, how then can one love God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength (1st ofthe Twin Commandments - see Mark 12:30)? If you remember from Luke 10:25-28, when thelawyer asked Jesus - 'Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?'; Jesus instructed him to obeythese Twin Commandments.

In this instance we have Jesus alone with what might not initially appear to be a good Samaritanwoman! In biblical times men do not talk to strange women alone, let alone a woman that is not ofthe same race and religion. Note the part of the gospel passage as to how the disciples really feltin their heart or mind but did not speak out openly - 'At this point his disciples returned and weresurprised to find him speaking to a woman, though none of them asked, 'What do you want fromher?' or, 'What are you talking to her about?' ' Imagine what the disciples would have reallythought had they known that the Samaritan woman at the well 'have had five husbands'? Wouldour wives allow us to talk alone with a woman who 'have had five husbands'?

Remember Jesus saving the life of the adulteress who was being stoned for adultery (John 8:3-11)? Jesus said to the stoners - "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at herfirst." Remember also Jesus allowing the prostitute to wash his feet with her tears and then

anointed them with fragrant oil at Pharisee Simon's house (Luke 7:36-50)? Didn't Jesus tell thesinful woman that her sins were forgiven because her faith had saved her (Luke 7:48; 50)? It islittle facts like these that are so profound! God therefore is not interested in our worldly sins. In


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Luke 5:32 Jesus said - "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance." We areall 'sinners' as worldly sons of man( as 'goats')! The 'forgiveness' by the Spirit Father and the'redemption' by the spirit Lost Prodigal Son (the 'lost sheep') of the Original Sin of 'separation' (fromGod) are predicated on the repentant spirit Lost Prodigal Son's faith in/of the grace in his SpiritFather's unconditional love to accept him back home however much or whatever he had sinned inhis alter ego as a worldly being (a 'goat').

You have to appreciate this matrix of goat/sheep or worldly/spiritual that is interwoven or embroiledin the gospel passage to really understand the richness and profundity of Jesus' words in hisencounter and repartee with the Samaritan woman at the well. For when parables are interposedor interspersed with metaphors, simple literal interpretation will definitely get you no where.

I appreciate Father Michael having to talk about metaphorical thirst for water and the deep well theway he did. To do otherwise would be quite confusing for his congregation who are not on thesame theological or epistemological or soteriological level of understanding as we are. Here, infact, 'thirsty' has really nothing to do with 'thirst' nor 'hungry' anything really to do with 'hunger'.Admittedly or presumably in the worldly context, Jesus was both 'thirsty' (Jesus said to theSamaritan woman - "Give me a drink") and 'hungry' (that was why the 'disciples had gone into thetown to buy food'). Here the 'thirst' has really to do with the yearning or longing for 'eternal life' orthe eternal love and bliss associated with eternity that is described as 'living water' (John 4:10) orby analogy 'living bread'. See John 6:51 where Jesus said - "I am the living bread which camedown from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall giveis My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world." Please do not take the word 'bread' hereliterally as 'bread' or the word 'flesh' literally as 'flesh'. 'Flesh' here means 'body' but in a spiritualsense, as in 'spirit body'! The whole idea in carrying our cross in imitation of Christ or followingChrist, is to give up our worldly life for an eternal spirit body. This now takes us back to what I willdescribe as the major spiritual starting point in the gospel passage before us - John 4:13-14 whereJesus replied to the Samaritan woman: "13 Whoever drinks this water will be thirsty again; 14 butno one who drinks the water that I shall give will ever be thirsty again: the water that I shall give willbecome a spring of water within, welling up for eternal life."

This is the main thrust of the passage - the promise of eternal life or the promise of salvation! Butunlike what Jesus said to the lawyer about attaining eternal life by obeying the TwinCommandments; here the method of practice is as follows - John 4:23-24 where Jesus said - "23But the hour is coming -- indeed is already here -- when true worshippers will worship the Father inspirit and truth: that is the kind of worshipper the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and those whoworship must worship in spirit and truth." In other words, Jesus is saying - I promise you eternallife and this is how you achieve it; you worship God in spirit and truth!

Let me now illustrate how multi-layered this exposition is, how it gets more spiritually luminouswhen you transcend above from 2-D to 3-D and beyond. Perceive how in a worldly sense thisunlikely unsavoury Samaritan woman turned out to be a Good Samaritan, not in the Good

Neighbour sense, as in the second of the Twin Commandments, but in the sense of loving Godwith all your 'heart, mind, soul and strength', as in the first of the Twin Commandments, that werereferred to earlier in relation to the lawyer asking Jesus how to attain eternal life. In her worldlyway or sense, remembering that she is probably just a simple peasant woman, she was worshipingGod in the 'spirit' when she said to Jesus - 'Sir, give me some of that water, so that I may never bethirsty or come here again to draw water.' and she was worshipping God in 'truth' when shereplied to Jesus - 'I have no husband.' -when Jesus said to her - "Go and call your husband, andcome back here."

However at the spiritual level (rather than at the worldly literal level) the key words in John 4:24 are- "God is spirit, and those who worship must worship in spirit and truth." As Light is to light (seeJohn 1:9 and John 8:12), so is Spirit is to spirit. The Good Samaritan woman at the well was

worshipping as a worldly human being (as a 'goat') rather than as a 'spirit son of God' (as a 'lostsheep')! This is why Jesus said at John 4:21:- "Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when youwill worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. Only the self-righteous worldly


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son of man ( the 'goat') would worship in his respective self-proclaimed or self-perceived holymountain or holy city, whether that be Jerusalem or Mecca or the Vatican. In the egoless 'spirit'son of God (the 'lost sheep') you worship to God within you! And, you can do that anywhere andanytime. Wherever you are, God is there with you! As Jesus said in Matthew 28:20 - "I am withyou always, to the end of the age(i.e. time)"

Refer Luke 17:20-21 where Jesus said - "The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor

will they say, 'See here!' or 'See there!'(That is, you cannot perceive or see it externally to or fromyourself). For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you." Refer also 1 Corinthians 6:19 - 'Or do younot know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God,and you are not your own?' If God is within us why do we have to go and worship on a particularmountain or in Jerusalem, Mecca or the Vatican? As Jesus said in Matthew 6:6 - "But you, whenyou pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father in the secretplace; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly." That 'secret place' is yourmind! That is why you have to give all your 'heart, mind, soul and strength' to God! Do not let thedevil of a 'monkey' control your mind! Do not have a egoistic mind-set! Let your mind be totally forGod's glory.

Before I enter the final stage and commence discussion on what is meant by 'worship (God) inspirit and truth' let me comment on the unusual remark by Jesus at John 4:34-37 about 'food' thathe claimed the disciples had no knowledge of when he was asked by his disciples to eat - "34 Myfood is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to complete his work. 35 Do you not have asaying: Four months and then the harvest? Well, I tell you, look around you, look at the fields;already they are white, ready for harvest! 36 Already the reaper is being paid his wages, alreadyhe is bringing in the grain for eternal life, so that sower and reaper can rejoice together. 37 Forhere the proverb holds true: one sows, another reaps; 38 I sent you to reap a harvest you have notlaboured for. Others have laboured for it; and you have come into the rewards of their labour."

This sub-passage in the gospel reading is impossible to understand unless you understand theworkings of, or should I say the 'ascending and descending of angels of God' on, Jacob's Ladder

(refer back to Genesis 28:12). The 'angels of God' are the spirit sons of God (the 'lost sheep')trapped in never-ending rebirths as sons of man ('goats'), as in the 'unclean spirit' ('sheep' lost ortrapped in the 'goat') and its seven more wicked spirit companions (the worldly mind, the fivesenses and the conscience) (see Matthew 12:43-45). Whatever I am (as son of man) in thisworldly existence, the rung on Jacob's Ladder that I (as the 'lost sheep', spirit son of God) am on inthis life, I am reaping from what was sown from 'my' earlier worldly existences as son of man! IfVictor, you and I have a good life today, it is partly because whoever 'we' were in our previousworldly existences, 'we' have sown 'good' seeds, for good begets good. Jesus wants everygeneration to sow good seeds for the next generation. It would have an exponential effect! The'sower' and the 'reaper' rejoicing together is euphemism for getting off Jacob's Ladder!

In that sense the 'person' (the 'sower') doing or who did the sowing does or did not and will not

personally accrue merits or demerits. He is 'dead' to the 'cause'! Karma has no 'self-ego'! Thereis really no connective 'I' or 'We' between the different worldly existences! Get rid of the falsesense of worldly self-ego! It is like the plague! It stands in the way of salvation of our eternal spirit!Karma only has an inherent latent equanimous karmic repercussion! It is another 'person' as the'reaper' that will reap the rewards of his totally unrelated predecessor's (sower's) labour or sowing.So, rather than merits or demerits for or against the 'one' who sows, it is in effect a blessing orcurse on or to the 'one' who shall reap.

The 'sower' and the 'reaper' are both transient, illusory and mortal beings. They are sort of 'motorvehicles' only! Karmic residue or consequence therefore has an auto-driven karmic energy of itsown resource or steam! 'Karmic energy' is the 'driver' of the vehicle! The 'motor vehicle' is not the'driver'! As worldly beings, we live only once! We have only one life or existence in our present

worldlypersona! We are 'unreal'! Our reality, what we are truly are, is in our eternal spirit son ofGod being! We are 'lost sheep'! We are not 'goats'! That is what Judgement Day (Matthew 25:31-34) is all about! That is why we have to have complete faith in Christ and his Truth. We have to


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awaken to his Truth! His Truth is simply that we are eternal spirit Lost Prodigal Sons ('lost sheep')and that we should come out of the 'darkness' and 'delusion' that is worldly 'mortality' ('goats') andreturn home to the Spirit Father!

Now to explaining what is meant by "God is spirit, and those who worship must worship in spiritand truth." I explained earlier why the Samaritan woman at the well was 'worldly' worshipping Godin the spirit rather than 'spiritually' worshipping God in the spirit. Let me expound on this further. In

John 3:3 Jesus said to Nicodemus - "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, hecannot see the kingdom of God." I have explained earlier that the 'kingdom of God' is not outsideus but within us. That was the first misconception of Nicodemus; he was seeking the kingdom ofGod outside of himself. The lesson we should learn from this basic tenet is that, strictly from aspiritual point of view, we should not cling, grasp or attach ourselves to anything pertaining to thishuman world of ours, the world of phenomena. We should, in our spiritual practice, 'let go' of thisworld. God is within us, in our 'heart, soul, mind and strength'. God is not anywhere outside ofthese intrinsic 'elements'! Ponder fully on this point! That is not saying that we should not live ourworldly life to the full. We have to render unto Caesar (epitomising the world) what belongs toCaesar, but we have to render unto God what belongs to God. Just remember however theImmutable Law of Cause and Effect; the Immutable Law of You Reap What You Sow!

Anyway Nicodemus was rather confused as to how he could be 'worldly' 'reborn' while he was stillalive! To clear his confusion (although I am not sure whether Nicodemus became any wiser)Jesus said to him at John 3:5 - "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and theSpirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that whichis born of the Spirit is spirit." This clearly tells us that only one who is born both a son of man (the'goat') (born from the womb of 'Eve') and an eternal spirit son of God (the 'lost sheep') can enterthe kingdom of God! No animals or rocks or anything non-human can go to heaven! There are nodogs or cats or birds and spiders in heaven! We have to be a 'sheep' (eternal spirit son of God)'lost' in our guise of mortal son of man (the 'goat') as a consequence of the Original Sin of Adamand his Fall from Grace.

We have to get off Jacob's Ladder! We have to return home like the Lost Prodigal Son did! Wehave to be 'born again' in the spirit, in our eternal spirit! We are not actually 'reborn' in the 'spirit'!That is only a manner of figurative expression! Nothing 'eternal' has or needs to be 'reborn'. Here''reborn' is in the sense of 'awakening' to our true eternal spirit son of God being; in the sense of'baptism of the spirit'. In the same sense that Jesus said in John 3:14 - "... even so must the Sonof Man be lifted up(in the Spirit), that whoever believes in Him(the Spirit Father) shall not perishbut have eternal life.", we as sons of man will also be lifted up in the 'spirit' if we believe in the SpiritFather; and we shall not perish again as mortal beings but will have eternal life! It is a ratherconvoluted way of saying the obvious, that we do not want or wish to be reborn as worldly mortalbeings and still be on some rung or another on Jacob's Ladder; but that we want or wish to be'reborn' in our eternal spirit son of God! This is confirmed by what Jesus said in John 6:63 - "It isthe Spirit(Father) who gives life(to the spirit son of God); the flesh(son of man)profits nothing.

The words that I speak to you, are(about the) spirit(sons of God), and they are(about eternal)life."

From now understanding how to worship in 'spirit', how do we worship in 'truth'? The truth can onlybe the truth. But the gospel truth can only be the words of Jesus. In John 17:16-17 Jesus in hisLast Prayer in the garden of Gethsemane said - "They(the spirit sons of God, the 'lost sheep') arenot of the world, just as I am not of the world(even though the Son of Man and the sons of manare in the world). Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth." Truth in this Christian sensemust be in the words of God. As Jesus proclaimed in John 14:6 - "I am the way(to salvation of thespirit), the truth(to), and the(Light to eternal) life. No one comes to the(Spirit) Father exceptthrough Me." As Christ proclaimed in Revelation 1:8 - "I am the Alpha and the Omega, theBeginning and the End, who is and who was and who is to come the Almighty" The Truth is in the

divinity and eternity that is Jesus Christ. The Truth is in the divinity and eternity that is God. TheTruth is that as spirit sons of God, as his 'lost sheep', we are divine eternal beings! The Truth isthat heaven is not someplace we have to aspire or qualify for, but rather, it is our original spiritual


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eternal family abode that we can always return home to, as eternal spirit son of God in repentance,for family reconciliation, at our Father's grace, because of his unconditional love for us, regardlessof how we have failed him, in our worldly sins as sons of man, in our lapse in filial piety as his spiritsons, by our separation from his care, love and kindness.

So strange and ironic isn't it, when we 'worship (God) in the spirit and truth', when we achievesalvation, there are no human beings that are in fact saved, although we speak loosely in those

terms of 'our' salvation, that 'we' are saved. There are no Christians, Muslims or Jews that are infact saved. There are no good people that are saved nor sinners pagans or heathens that are notsaved. There is in fact no spiritual salvation, even though, as a matter of practical expediency, wedescribe our spiritual practice as seeking salvation. If it were not so, there will never ever beuniversal salvation for all! The simple spiritual fact is that what is 'mortal' cannot be saved; andwhat is 'eternal' does not require saving! No son of man ('goat') whatever his colour, creed orreligion is saved. Only the eternal spirit son of God (the 'lost sheep') in every son of man, whateverhis colour, creed or religion is saved. That is what is meant by universal salvation.

The simple fact is that the eternal spirit Prodigal Son that is 'lost' has to be 'found', that was 'blind'to his eternal spirit son of God being, has to awaken to then 'see' his eternal spirit son of Godbeing; and in the 'finding', the Lost Prodigal Son has to find himself, find his true eternal self; but tofind himself he has to lose his false worldly mortal 'self'. It is when he is egoless in the spirit that heis reconciled and united with the Father in the 'spirit'! That is the basis of the Truth that is the HolyTrinity, of the Father and the Son and the Spirit. They are not three but one! Our salvation is onlypossible when we lose the 'our'; we are saved only when we lose our 'we'! We have to be 'one inall, and all in one'. It is only then that we can truly say we love God with all our heart, soul, mindand strength; and that we love all our neighbours as we love ourselves. That is the Truth of theTwin Commandments! It is only then we love each other as Jesus loved us (refer John 15:12).That is worshipping God in the spirit and truth.

Let us conclude this discourse with one of my favourite hymns:-

COME TO THE WATER

Refrain

Come to the water! You who are thirsty!Though you have nothing, I bid you come!And be filled with the goodness I have to offer!Come! Listen! Live.

Verse 1

Why spend your money on what cannot fill

The emptiness deep in your heart?Listen to My word and you will enjoyGoodness and peace in your heart!

Refrain

Verse 2

Just as the heavens are high above earth;My ways and thoughts beyond you!Call me your Father and know I am near!I will be Father to you!

Refrain


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Verse 3

Just as the rain falls to water the earth;Just as a seed becomes breadMy word upon you can never returnUntil My longing is filled!

Refrain

By Father Frank Andersen

Love and God Bless!

Chuan

24/3/14

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Worship God in Spirit and Truth